🦅Secretarybird

Sagittarius serpentarius (J.F.Miller, 1779)

The secretarybird or secretary bird is a large bird of prey that is endemic to Africa. It is mostly terrestrial, spending most of its time on the ground, and is usually found in the open grasslands and savanna of the sub-Saharan region. John Frederick Miller described the species in 1779. A member of the order Accipitriformes, which also includes many other diurnal birds of prey such as eagles, hawks, kites, vultures, and harriers, it is placed in its own family, the Sagittariidae.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Measurements

vs you

≈ 1/15th of your weight

Also called

Secretary Bird

Conservation status

ENEndangered

IUCN Red List assessment, 2020.

Population trendDecreasing

Key measurements

Body mass: 4.02 kg
Body length: not recorded
Shoulder height: not recorded
Top speed: not recorded
Bite force: not recorded
Maximum lifespan: not recorded

All measurements ↓

Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Secretarybird

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass

4.02 kg

AVONET

Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Standing height

1.05 m0.9–1.2 m · typical rangenot stated

Details ↓

'They are 0.9 to 1.2 m tall and weigh between 2.3 and 4.27 kg.' Midpoint of the published range. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance factsheet, citing Kemp (1994, 1995), gives '1.2 m tall (~4 ft)'.

Source: SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute), Secretarybird, Animal of the Week, 2 Aug 2021, https://www.sanbi.org/animal-of-the-week/secretarybird/ · see citation

Tail length

0.55 m

AVONET

Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length

0.62 m

AVONET

Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length

0.06 m